La Niña announces her arrival with killer
floods in Asia

Over 3 000 deaths in Asia have been attributed to La
Niña-provoked flooding since persistent rains
began throughout the region in late June. Bangladesh and
China have been hit the hardest - at least 2 000 people
have been killed in China, mostly in heavily populated
central and southern areas - but deaths have also been
reported in the Republic of Korea, India and Nepal,
according to a recent Special
Report. The flooding, which has left many of the more
than 250 million people affected across the region without
shelter and possessions, is thought to be one of the first
signs of the arrival of La Niña.

Considered the "sister" of the weather phenomenon
referred to as El Niño, La Niña is
characterized by an upswelling of cold water in the areas of
the Pacific Ocean that turn abnormally warm during El
Niño. It threatens to reverse the extreme weather
trends suffered in many countries of the region, flooding
drought-stricken areas and vice versa, as they continue to
struggle to recover from the impact of El Niño. El
Niño, which began in March 1997 and ended only
recently, caused severe drought in much of Asia,
particularly in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand
and Indonesia, which recorded its worst drought in over 50
years.

The recent flooding has inflicted severe damage on the
region's infrastructure, including roads, bridges and rail
links, seriously disrupting the transport of commodities.
Large areas of cropped land have been submerged in China,
Bangladesh and the Republic of Korea.

Although it is too early to estimate the impact of the
floods on regional crop production, there are fears of a
decline in world paddy output, 90 percent of which comes
from Asia. This could fuel further increases in world rice
prices, already unseasonably high. Indonesia, once
self-sufficient in rice, is now the world's largest
importer, and faces the severe prospect of reduced
production as a result of earlier drought, high world prices
and an unprecedented financial crisis.